Hunger is Not a Game Launches Saturday 10 March, 2012

This month, as we prepare for the release of the Hunger Games movie, Tributes around the globe are taking action to help fight hunger in the real world. We’re teaming up with the Harry Potter fandom to help the Harry Potter Alliance’s Imagine Better Project with their new campaign, Hunger is NOT a Game (name generously donated by Shylah, whose incarnation of Hunger is Not a Game last year was an initiative created to raise money for famine relief in East Africa).

This is a project that we have been helping develop for the last few months, and we’re so unbelievably excited for all of you to get involved!

From their official website:

“In the world of the Hunger Games series, everything is controlled by the Capitol, which uses power and money to punish the districts. The citizens of the Capitol live in luxury at the expense of the districts, forcing others to live in poverty so that they can enjoy their own wealth. Katniss, Gale and the citizens of District 12 are forced to break the law to keep from starving, to maintain an informal and illegal market so that they can eat.

“Sound familiar? It should. Our world rests on an imbalanced system. In every country there are people who are starving because of corrupt politicians, injust laws and violent conflict. The most basic needs of millions of people are going unmet. And we can do something about it. The Harry Potter Alliance’s Imagine Better Project is fighting hunger in our newest campaign: Hunger is Not a Game. In honor of Suzanne Collins’ masterful series, we’ll be fighting the injustice of the Capitol and hunger in our own districts. If we want to shut down the Hunger Games once and for all, we need to stop the Capitol from treating hunger like a game by attacking the systematic injustices used to keep the rich richer and the poor hungrier.”

For the next month, our friends at the Harry Potter Alliance are running the Hunger is Not a Game campaign so that we can all help with this issue — whether it be running a food drive at a local movie theater for the midnight release, signing Oxfam’s GROW pledge, or spreading the word about this important issue. You can join the campaign by visiting the HPA’s website: http://thehpalliance.org/imagine-better/hunger-is-not-a-game/. Together, we can stand up against the Capitol and get rid of hunger for good!

This past Thursday, Fireside Chat host Savanna appeared on a livestream with prominent members of the HPA, Shylah from Down with the Capitol, Evanna Lynch, and Lauren Fairweather to officially launch Hunger is Not a Game AND to celebrate International Women’s Day. If you weren’t able to tune in to the livestream, you can check it out below (it should be running on a loop):